mr. phelps. on becoming the most decorated olympian in history. and congratulations to my toilet bowl, it's going to be the recipient of the largest poop in history. >> i wish i hadn't heard that. >> we've got four to go to today's top video. at number four, it's not bad weather, it's a great opportunity to make a good video. >>> new jersey was recently hit with really bad weather and these images from nbc 10 in new jersey, we see some of the activity. >> that's a lightning strike. >> but you know what, yada yada yada, because the people in this community are making the best out of this bad weather. they took to the flooded streets in sea isle city in jersey. they surfed the flooded streets. ♪ ♪ >> i like that there was still traffic coming in the other direction. >> it looks like a lot of fun. >> this is a beach community and that's all these people are out playing in the puddles on the streets. they're playing in the street water. there's an ocean like 20 yards away. >> but the ocean is there all the time, beth. this is a, you know -- somewhat r

mr. phelps and a run-in, i understand, dan, with ovie at the olympics. >> yeah, a lot going on yesterday, yun aeun and aaron. michael phelps, the most decorated olympian in the history of the games. he finally did it. two medals for phelps yesterday. he now has 19 total olympic medals. michael phelps got it started with signature event. 200 meter butterfly. he's held the world record in the butterfly since he was 15-year-old op. phelps led nearly the entire way. leading by more than a second at the final split. but at the very end he loses the same way he won at the last olympics in beijing, by half a stroke. he had to settle for a silver. an hour later phelps back in the pool for the 200 meter freestyle relay. an ryan lochte provided team with a big lead, phelps was able to cruise to victory bringing home the gold for the u.s. and his 19th career medal. >> anything is possible. i have put, you know -- i've put my mind on doing something that no one had ever done before. there was nothing that was going to stand in my way of being michael phelps. that's what i said all along. this has bee

phelps. president obama chimed in with his congratulations. he took to twitter. >> mr. o michael phelps for breaking the all time olympic medical record the you've made your country proud. no doubt about that. >> i think we are so enamored with the olympics, michael phelps. >> a great story. a great story. >>> later in the half-hour, the amazing female swimmer from china, a gold medal and strong defense of her talents. that's coming up in a few minutes. don't go far. >>> on this side of the atlantic we are following several stories about threats to airline passengers. air canada is now investigating after a passenger reported finding a sewing needle in his sandwich. you may remember last month needles turned up in six sandwiches on delta flights from amsterdam. the latest incident involved a flight from british columbia to toronto. >>> in denver, a united airlines flight was able to land safely after a bird strike as the jet was preparing to land. abc's clayton sandel has more on that story. >> reporter: it could have been catastrophic, a feathery midair collision. this

mr. phelps. >> you saw phelps with bob costas. good interview. >> i thought it was great. what's his final number? >> a lot. >> a lot. >> i just have a couple of other comes. misty may trainer, did you see those girls play volleyball. >> i saw the highlights. >> they have never lost a match and only lost one set and they were playing these girls yesterday, the italians. and they were kicking their ass so badly they started crying. i felt bad. they are so good and actually misty may trainer is the girls' idol. there's no crying. >> no crying in volleyball. >> no crying unless you win. you can't cry because you're getting sparnged. these women may be so good at what they do that they are just miles ahead. then you had the guy, the jamaican guy, bolt. his name is bolt. he's cool running. then i got one last thing. one last comment. did you watch the diver from china? >> yes. what is it that's on their back? almost these stripes. different color. is it a tape? what is that. there's a viewer out there who knows what it is. send it in. >> sublime beauty of her diving. >> there's

>> right now michael phelps may have to change its name to mr. record as he sets a new record in the pool. >> fans here were wild as michael phelps brought in number20. >> a look at the highlights as you take a look at the cauldron in london. [captioning made possible by constellation energy group] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> you're watching wbal-tv 11. live, local, late-breaking. this is 11 news today at 5:00 a.m. >> good morning. happy friday. i'm mindy basara. >> and i'm stan stovall. >> it is still hot and humid. >> on thinking this is ok after the run of 90's and 100's. >> we're starting off fairly humid out there. you will notice the humidity into the afternoon. high temperature around 94 outside the city and close to 96 downtown in the city. there is a chance for a thunderstorm this afternoon. it will close down and give us the much-needed rain. >> good morning. a nice start as you head out this friday morning. closures in the city. light street is closed between baltimore and lombard. doing well as

. >> phelps tweeted back thank you mr. president it is an honor representing the usa the best country in the world. >>> the u.s. women's gymnastics team also lived up to the hype. yes. they won gold you go girls, in the overall team event for the first time since 1996. the u.s. and china are currently tied for first place in overall medal count with 23 each. wonderful. >> can i tell you, i have a problem watching some olympicsparticularly gymnastics like in winter time the skating, the ice skatings. >> why? >> i get very nervous for these young people. >> they have trained many hours, every day for most of their lives to be in this moment. >> some times you know it doesn't go well. >> some times it doesn't some times it does. >> i know. >> the other issue is the judges discretion not just a race how fast you are going the judge -- it is like a random call. >> it is a lot of pressure >> i tip my hat to them and you guys too because michelle whom i met yesterday with her lovely daughter in silver springs said especially tony

mr. john berman and i have been debating this. is michael phelps the best olympian ever?> reporter: morning. i'll tell you, there's no debate about the fact it was stars and stripes all the way here at the olympics last night. but it's a really difficult question to answer that. it is the topic of conversation across breakfast tables this morning. in terms of swimming and in terms of medals won, then yes. michael phelps is the greatest olympian of all time after he reached that 19 mark last night with a victory in the 200 -- silver in the 200 fly, i should say, and the gold in the relay.

mr. obama celebrated his 51st birthday today, playing some golf in the morning and then heading to camp david. ahead, michael phelps already had the most medals ever at the olympics. did he add to the total? that story is next. the quiet sneeze...o masr ♪ [ sneezes ] [ male announcer ] you may be an allergy muddler. try zyrtec®. it gives you powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin® because zyrtec® starts working at hour 1 on the first day you take it. claritin® doesn't start working until hour 3. [ sneezes ] [ male announcer ] zyrtec®. love the air. join zyrtec® rewards. save up to $7 on zyrtec® products. but they haven't experienced extra strength bayer advanced aspirin. in fact, in a recent survey, 95% of people who tried it agreed that it relieved their headache fast. visit fastreliefchallenge.com today for a special trial offer. ooh gas, take an antacid. oh, thanks. good luck. good luck to you. doesn't he know antacids won't help gas? oh, he knows. [ male announcer ] antacids don't relieve gas. gas-x is designed to relieve gas. gas-x. the gas xperts. trouble with a car insurance claim. [

mr. john berman and i have been debating this. is michael phelps the best olympian ever? >> reporter: morning. i'll tell you, there's no debate about the fact it was stars and stripes all the way here at the olympics last night. but it's a really difficult question to answer that. it is the topic of conversation across breakfast tables this morning. in terms of swimming and in terms of medals won, then yes. michael phelps is the greatest olympian of all time after he reached that 19 mark last night with a victory in the 200 -- silver in the 200 fly, i should say, and the gold in the relay. but it depends how you measure greatness, doesn't it? is it number of medals or is it longevity of olympic career or is it the impact that you have on your individual sport? loads of people have been tweeting me about it using the hashtag cnn olympics. the only person who can say that michael phelps isn't the greatest olympian ever is the one who wins 20 medals. we might be waiting some time for that. another says the most decorated, right thereupon with the best. but i think you can't

phelps responded with a tweet of his own. "thank you, mr. president. it's an honor representing the usa, the best country in the world." a quick check of the medal count. china and the u.s. each have 23 total, japan in third with 13. savannah? >>> natalie, thanks. we are delighted to have the u.s. gymnastics women's team here celebrating their gold with us. aly raisman, jordyn wieber, kyla ross, mckayla maroney, and gabby douglas. i don't think you ladies need any introduction any more. has it sunk in? you guys didn't just win. i'll borrow kyla's favorite phrase, you rocked the house last night. kyla, would you agree? >> i definitely think we rocked the house. i hope we made our country proud. we wanted to go out there and have fun competing. we knew this was our chance to be strong and we did our best and it's happy to know we came out with the gold. >> it's amazing, gabby, because you didn't just win, you won by five points, astonishing, never done before. what did you think about that? >> yeah. i was so confident and so confident in these girls and

phelps for breaking the all- time olympic medal record. you've made your country proud, signed bo, clearly that's for barack obama. he replied thank you, mr. president, it's an honor representing the usa, the best country in the world. that's how he carved out his place in history ars the most decorated olympian of all timed and he still has a couple of more ee -- of a time, and he still has a couple of more events. all of this with littl effort. he didn't train that hard. >> he said he didn't train the right way. >> a couple of days ago this narrative seemed to be going in another direction entirely. >> it looked like he was just going through the motions and say, all right, well, it's over now. but it turned out okay for him. he's a winner. imagine with a little more effort, who knows what could have happened. >> all gold, right. >> all gold. >> he did put in some effort. >> thank you, wisdom. >>> coming up an embarrassing disaster? that's how an obama aide reached to mitt romney's overseas trip. why a romney aide lost his cool. that's coming up ahead. >> plus, president obama slaps new sanctions on iran as one author explores our probl

mr. berman? >> yes. he's the best olympian ever. >> the united states winning gold in the men's 200 meter free style relay. the 19th overall medal for michael phelpsaking him the most decorated athlete. >> the greatest ever in terms of impact, maybe jesse owens. miracle on ice hockey team from 1980. >>> unless congress steps in the u.s. postal service will be in default today. it owes the federal government $5.5 billion to prepare health care benefits for future retirees. the postal service acknowledging it doesn't have the money to pay this bill or a $5.6 billion payment that's due in september. the senate passed a bill back in april to help the postal service, but the house hasn't acted on it yet. >>> a florida man who spent 24 years in prison for a rape he did not commit is back behind bars this morning. he's charged with attempted murder. 51-year-old allen kroetser is accused of opening fire on a car while driving on the app latch chi parkway in tallahassee. in 2006 he was freed from prison after dna evidence proved that he was wrongly convicted in a 1981 rape and robbery case. he was given more than $1 million in compensation by the state of

phelps for breaking the all-time olympic medal record. you've made our country proud -- b. o. then he wrote back to the president, he said thank you mr.untry in the world. >> stephanie: it is hard for him to tweet because he has hands like a platypus. >> gigantic. >> tweeting likely swimming, a little difficult. all right. so here's another one. mitt romney's tax plan turns out to raise taxes on 95% of americans. and cut tax for the top 5%. shocker, right? new study out today by the brookings institute and the tax policy center before anybody says it is bias, "the washington post" says the two tried very hard to give romney the benefit of the doubt. he wants to cut the tax rate 20% across the board. that means we would have $360 billion less by 2015. in order to make up for that without increasing the deficit because romney says he wants to be deficit neutral, he would have to eliminate a bunch of tax breaks for the middle class. >> stephanie: oh no. >> education, child care, mortgage breaks, things like that so essentially his tax plan is going to be a net increase for the middle class and a net break for the wealthiest americans. >>